I saw that movie



glad to know the victims will get justice.

See the BBC movie "Shooting Dogs" (which refers to the fact that so many corpses piled up--everywhere--that dogs were eating them and spreading disease. The same armed soldiers who were not given authority to use their guns to intervene in the genocide were given license to use their guns to shoot dogs) about the genocide. It was hideously painful to watch, but really, really well done.

and I don't knot if the victims can get anything approaching justice. Ever. But it's something...and it's a good message for Canada to be sending, imho.

I can't believe that only 27 people have been tried an convicted in Rwanda itself. Token justice, eh? Bravo for Canadia for doing what's right.

If any body really cared they would have done something to try and stop it. This is why the UN is a waste of time and money. Action could have saved more people than I can count.

I applaud Canada for taking action outside the UN and actually doing something, but I can't see trials like this ever coming close to bringing about real justice.

I suggest you read General Dallaire's detailed memoirs on the UN peacekeeping mission to Rwanda and re-assess your belief of the irrelevancy of the UN.

+1 to that... but it also shows just how hard it is to make the UN work.

but it CAN if people want it to.

Yay for Canada! I wish more and more people could be brought to justice.

The Rwandan government decided not to pursue charges against against every single person who committed a heinous act during the turmoil, and instead chose only to bring formal charges on the leaders who incited the atrocities. The main reasons being that the government had no hope of incarcerating or providing expedient justice to the over 100,000 people accused of crimes. Those accused of lesser crimes were charged in the communal Gacaca justice system, which is based on traditional modes of justice and reconciliation in that region of Africa.

The other aim of using the Gacaca system is to move towards reconciliation and unity so that ethnic strife is not perpetuated.

On a side note, one of the most horrible things about all the racially motivated strife in Rwanda is that those racial distinctions are artificial ones imposed by European colonists.

Exactly. That was one of the salient points I came away with after reading General Dallaire's accounts of being blocked by Americans and by other officials from Western powers from getting the equipment and the diplomatic support he needed to stop the genocide.

wait...
Where's the ironic title to this story?

I'll do that, thank you. But I doubt it will change my belief that action could have been taken early on to stop so many people from dying.